Nationwide, dermatology departments enroll annually over 300 young physicians interested in becoming dermatologists. The majority of these individuals represent the cream of their medical school class. After three years of residency training, most of them leave the university to begin a successful private practice. Why do these young dermatologists walk away from academics and dermatological research? Somehow, academic careers in dermatological research must be made more attractive to these young individuals. We wish to focus our efforts in testing one hypothesis: that early exposure of our young trainees to leading national research figures and successful young physician scientists and diffusion of information about research careers may have a positive influence in their career decisions.